Two killed in accidents

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Two persons were killed and another was seriously injured in a string of accidents, two of them on the crater-filled Bypass, in Calcutta on Thursday.

The first victim, later identified as Ramesh Purakayet, was found lying on the EM Bypass, near Parama island in the Pragati Maidan police station area, around 5.50am. A police van patrolling the area took the injured to Chittaranjan National Medical College and Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries around 8am.

A preliminary investigation revealed that an Ultadanga-bound vehicle had hit Ramesh, who worked as a guard in a private company.

“The stretch is full of craters. The driver of the offending vehicle may have lost control while negotiating the potholes,” said an officer of the traffic department.

Less than five hours later, Kaushik Mandal, 24, was run over by a car bearing a Karnataka registration number, also on the Bypass.

“Kaushik, a Trinamul Congress leader in Andal, Burdwan, had gone to TMC Bhavan off the EM Bypass when the accident occurred,” said the officer. “The offending vehicle was headed south. It will be tracked down out soon as witnesses have provided us with the registration number.”

Kaushik was admitted with severe head injuries to a private healthcare unit, where he has been kept under observation.

In the Port area, a 25-year-old man was crushed under the wheels of a minibus after he fell off its footboard around 11.30am. “The youth was standing on the footboard of the minibus on the Howrah-Metiabruz route. As the bus approached gate No. 5 of NS Dock on Central Garden Reach Road, he fell and was crushed under the rear wheels of the bus,” said a police officer.